Smart Business Dealmakers: The Middle-Market M&A Podcast

While many owners are thinking about and likely planning their exits, they're not rushing, says Perry Maughmer, who mentors CEOs as a local chair for Vistage in Columbus. Before stepping away for good, they want to know that the legacy they've built and the people who've helped them along the way are respected. From his seat at Vistage, Perry talks about the CEO mindset and how that's informing the decision to sell or stay put.

SPACs fast track the path for a private company to go public. The second part of that process — the one that's not as widely discussed — is de-SPACing and is needed to complete the process. Like most everything in M&A, it comes with risks. Aon Managing Director Matthew Wiener and Vice President Benjamin Popson discuss the risks inherent in the de-SPACing process, and how to effectively mitigate them.

The high-volume deal activity we've been seeing for the past 12 months has many business owners getting out while the getting is good. The often once-in-a-lifetime liquidity event has likely given them a great deal to work with and may encourage some to start investing. David Sowerby, managing director and portfolio manager at Ancora, offers some words of wisdom to those who are eager to put their money to work, and warns that business owners, post-exit, should expect to become very popular people.

Ampex Brands recently acquired bakery-café chain Au Bon Pain from Panera Bread, becoming a franchisor for the first time in its 16-year history and expanding its footprint internationally. Ampex Brands CFO Eric Easton and Jayne Juvan, M&A Chair at Ampex's law firm Tucker Ellis, discuss how it all went down.

Female entrepreneurship has been on the rise over the past decade. The pandemic brought unique challenges not only to this group, but generally to women in the workforce. Linda Pringle Evans, founder and CEO of Pringle Business Consulting and the Director of Education at Empowering a Billion Women, talks about the state of female entrepreneurship, where systemic flaws lead to a less-clear path for women who might otherwise start businesses, and about the launch of the Empower a Billion Women Accelerator.

The red hot deal market features the promise of incredible valuations and the threat of higher capital gains taxes. Business owners could feel that this is their moment to sell. But should they? And is a sale the only way to leverage this opportunity? Executive Partner Neil Cooper and Partner Alyssa Brodzinski of law firm RCCB dissect this moment and lay out some options business owners may want to consider before taking their company to market.

As the world emerges from the COVID-driven shutdowns, global markets enter a new phase. So what impact has the pandemic had on the fiscal and monetary-related activities, supply chains and even risk? Yenner Karto, Head of International Banking and Foreign Exchange at First National Bank, and Ahmed El Nokali, the bank's Head of Capital Markets, discuss these issues and more.

Kian Capital Partners recently completed a majority recapitalization of T Sportline, an e-commerce provider in the Tesla aftermarket space. It's the third platform investment in the automotive aftermarket space for the middle-market investment firm. Co-founder and partner Kevin McCarthy and partner Scott Buschmann talk about the investment, the opportunity they see as auto manufacturers ramp up their electric vehicle offerings, and their sense of how this year's M&A market is progressing.

River SaaS Capital identifies software-as-a-service companies that it can add value to not just by writing a check to help them scale but by leveraging the resources the firm has built. Chief Investment Officer Wendy Jarchow discusses how River SaaS Capital's 2020 played out, what the firm's survey of its portfolio companies told her about how they adjusted to the pandemic's challenges, and what she expects from its target sector this year.

As the deal market sizzles based on pent-up demand and an abundance of capital in search of good deals, the M&A world races toward a post-COVID reality. Yet questions about structure and terms still remain as we try to settle into a new normal. George Nemphos, founding member of law firm Nemphos Braue, shares his thoughts on the activity he's seeing, deals he's been closing for clients, and what's different from the deals that got done in 2019 and early 2020.